This week, the Parliamentary Economic Committee was convened regarding the vote on the bill to amend the Tobacco and Tobacco Products Act, which aims to impose a complete ban on vapes, before which the Chairperson of EAVI, Mrs. Elina Ivanova-Atanasov, was the voice of 250,000 users and the entire vape industry in Bulgaria. She expressed her strong disagreement with the proposed ban and urged the lawmakers to look at the issue from a different perspective without taking away the right to an alternative from consumers.
You can read Mrs. Ivanova-Atanasov's statement here:
Dear Mr. Chairman, esteemed members of parliament, colleagues,
I would like to address you with a slightly different perspective on this issue, which, to be honest, is somewhat populist.
From what has been happening in the last few days – in an urgent and forceful manner – what the public does not see is that, in fact, we have a serious problem with smuggling. We have narcotic substances reaching our children, and yet this issue is allowed to enter the public dialogue as a problem with vapes. There is no problem with vapes.
80% of the vape companies are members of our association. We created this business with the aim of working towards less harmful alternatives that can be offered to society – a less harmful alternative to conventional cigarettes. This is a practice applied worldwide.
You gave an example, Mr. Angelov, with statistics of 68 people worldwide who are claimed, but not proven, to have died as a result of vaping. At the same time, the statistics from the World Health Organization show that 8 million people die annually as a result of using conventional cigarettes.
We have gathered here today because, I truly regret the case with the child, but we are dealing with something that has nothing to do with the legal business we have organized. In the last few years, we have been working very closely with many colleagues sitting at this table – in the face of the Consumer Protection Commission, in the face of the Customs Agency, so that we can introduce regulation, ensuring that this product is properly organized, delivered in the right way to the country, and laboratory tested multiple times during its production, export, and import, so that we can be completely confident in the quality of what reaches the retail network.
We categorically support a ban on access to any products for individuals under the age of 18, but this applies equally to cigarettes, alcohol, and all products that could be harmful to our children.
The products we sell are legal and certified, and they help people reduce consumption because it has been proven – you can even see with a simple search online – that when transitioning from conventional cigarettes to nicotine vapes, and gradually to nicotine-free vapes, a large percentage of users completely stop consuming. This is our direction, and we are against a bill that bans this alternative for consumers, as it will inevitably lead to three main problems:
– We will start having "vape tourism." What does this mean? We have open borders, which means people will start buying vape products from Romania, Greece, and other nearby free markets, while consumption will still take place here, within the country.
– We will open a channel for this smuggling, which we have truly started to tackle successfully through collective efforts, because as an association, we are the ones most frequently reporting these signals and working in direct contact with the Economic Police, the Customs Agency, and the Consumer Protection Commission, submitting reports and reducing smuggling in the country to levels that are now quite minimized. If you follow the statistics, you will see it. We call for regulations that are strict and must be followed diligently by all of us, because only this will help us protect the health of consumers, especially our children.
